Where to stay in Doha: the best areas and hotels

West Bay is the cluster of skyscrapers you see in every photograph of Doha, curving round the northern end of the Corniche. It is the diplomatic and financial district, home to embassies, ministries, City Center mall and the exhibition centre, and after dark the towers light up in shifting colours across the water.

Most of the big international hotels are here. Some are pure city towers, with pools dozens of floors up and restaurants by famous chefs; others sit on the waterfront with their own beaches, gardens and water sports, a rare thing for a business district. Souq Waqif is ten to fifteen minutes away by taxi or metro. Come for convenience and views rather than street life: this is not a place for strolling.

Souq Waqif is the soul of Doha: a rebuilt traditional market of mud-rendered walls and timber beams, where alleys of spices, textiles, perfumes and falcons open on to squares packed with restaurants and shisha cafés. It comes alive after sunset, when half the city turns up to eat, and it is the one part of Doha best explored on foot.

You can sleep inside the souq itself, in a collection of small boutique hotels spread across restored heritage buildings. Next door, Msheireb is a handsome new low-rise quarter of museums, design shops and shaded streets, with polished five-star hotels, rooftop lounges looking across to the West Bay skyline and a metro interchange. The Corniche and the Museum of Islamic Art are a short walk away.

The southern end of the Corniche is where Doha keeps its cultural heavyweights. The Museum of Islamic Art sits on its own little island, the National Museum of Qatar unfurls like a desert rose beside the road, and the old port has been repainted in pastels and filled with cafés. The airport is ten to fifteen minutes away, which makes this ideal for a stopover.

Hotels range from waterfront apartments on the promenade to a resort built like a traditional Qatari village, with courtyards, three pools and its own stretch of beach. A classic luxury hotel overlooks the old port from its outdoor pool. You get the sights, the sea and the shortest transfer in town.

The Pearl is an artificial island north of West Bay, shaped like a string of pearls and built around yacht marinas. It is part Riviera, part Venice, with waterside promenades, designer boutiques, canals and cafés, and it is one of the few places in Doha where people simply wander about.

The hotels are resorts in all but name. One occupies its own private islet, a palace of marble and chandeliers with butler service, a beach and water sports. Others offer apartment-style residences with kitchens, private sand and pools, which makes them a strong choice for families. A grand beachfront hotel with villas stands at the start of the causeway. The souq is a taxi ride away.

Between West Bay and The Pearl lies Katara, a purpose-built cultural village of galleries, theatres, a marble amphitheatre and a public beach, laid out as a maze of traditional-style alleys. It hosts festivals and concerts through the cooler months and has some very good restaurants.

A serene beachfront resort sits right inside the village, and there are long-established beach hotels in landscaped gardens just to the south. The neighbouring West Bay Lagoon area adds a flamboyant design hotel with a celebrity-chef restaurant line-up and an enormous spa. This stretch is quieter than West Bay and well placed between the city and Lusail.

Lusail is a brand-new city just north of Doha, built from scratch on the coast with a marina, boulevards, a stadium and a skyline of its own. Its emblem is Katara Towers, two curving blades that meet like crossed swords above the sea, and inside them are two of the most lavish hotels in the Gulf: one all-suite, with a butler for every guest, the other with seven restaurants and bars.

Elsewhere along the shore are resort hotels on private beaches with family and adults-only pools, kids’ and teens’ clubs, and a sculptural oceanfront newcomer. It is glossy, spacious and still filling in. The metro runs down to West Bay and the souq, so you are not cut off.

If you want a beach holiday rather than a city break, look beyond the centre. Banana Island is a crescent of sand a 20-minute ferry ride from Doha, with a single resort, and a reef for snorkelling and diving. On the mainland, about 13 kilometres from town, a palatial resort offers rooms with private pools. South of the airport, the old fishing town of Al Wakra has a seafront souq and a five-star hotel made up of restored heritage houses on the beach.